I Just Realized Where I Know 'The White Lotus' Star Leslie Bibb from...and I'm Freaking Out

On a voyeuristic level, I appreciate all of the wild shenanigans the guests of The White Lotus get themselves into from their safe distance on my TV screen. On a personal level, though, I relate more to the exasperated Kate, the character so perfectly (and bob-ily) played by Leslie Bibb (one half of a real-life White Lotus couple). As a 30-something millennial, I also want to go on vacation simply to relax and indulge, not babysit my drunken friends experiencing a mid-life crisis amidst a group of hunky Russian bros.

As it turns out, my status as a 30-something millennial isn't only why I relate to Bibb's character, it's also why I suddenly remembered where I recognized Bibb herself from. The veteran actress, of course, has a long list of credits under her belt, including a recent role in Juror #2, which PureWow named one of the best thrillers of 2024. But the one I'm freaking out about? Her role as Brooke McQueen in the WB show Popular.

The criminally short-lived teen dramedy ran from 1999 to 2001, and though I, along with the rest of the girls in my elementary school class, were definitely way too young to be watching it, the series had us in a chokehold. And it's no wonder—it was co-creator Ryan Murphy's (of Glee and American Horror Story fame) very first foray into television. And if you're a fan of his work, you know he knows how to make addicting TV.

A cross between Bring it On and Mean Girls, Popular stars Bibb as the aforementioned McQueen, the quintessential popular girl—blonde, gorgeous, a cheerleader dating a football player. Carly Pope co-stars as Sam McPherson, the "not-cool" editor of the school newspaper. The plot revolves around the tensions that arise when McQueen and McPherson's respective parents get engaged and the two are forced to live together and interact at school, along with their rival "popular" and "unpopular" friend groups.

Though, like most of Murphy's shows, it was most definitely written with a hefty dose of satire, the series was a prime example of the teen hierarchy genre that was so prevalent in the late '90s and early 2000s. So much so that it was the basis of a schism in my elementary school class between the "blonde popular girls" and "brunette nerdy girls" (I was the leader of the brunette brigade, FYI). But it also did a pretty good job of subverting it by humanizing the characters, and pointing to the pressures put on teen girls. For one thing, Bibb's McQueen wasn't nearly as cruel as a Regina George-type queen bee, and she struggled with things like body image issues and insecurity just like everyone else. (When we're first introduced to her, she's agonizing over how many calories are in a grape.)

Tragically (for me at the time), the show only lasted two seasons, ending on an annoying cliffhanger after having been canceled abruptly by the network. And while I haven't thought about the series in years—let alone watched it—Bibb's resurgence in The White Lotus brought it all flooding back, and it might just be my excuse to give the show another watch. (Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be available to stream in an official capacity, but I did find this YouTube channel that has every episode uploaded, if you're curious.)